I was working on some choral music (polyphony) in which I wanted to place a
rehearsal mark in the middle of a measure. The mark displayed in a
confusing place. Here’s an example (screenshot):
[image: image.png]
In the code, \mark \default comes just before the b8 — but the singer
reading the top line could be forgiven for (mistakenly) thinking that
rehearsal mark L falls on the syllable “le.”
This led to a broader thought in my mind, which is that — maybe — a good
default alignment for rehearsal marks would be “over/at the bar line” when
the mark corresponds to a downbeat (as rehearsal marks usually do) but
centered directly over the note head when the rehearsal mark falls
somewhere during a measure.
I drafted a snippet below to illustrate LilyPond’s current behavior.
Do others have thoughts about this?
All the best,
Gabriel
%%% SNIPPET BEGINS
\version "2.24.4"
\layout { ragged-right = ##f indent = 0 }
\relative c' {
% Rehearsal marks A through E:
f1
\mark \default f1
f4 f4 f4 f4
f4 \mark \default f4 f4 f4 \break
f4 f4 \mark \default f4 f4
f4 f4 f4 \mark \default f4 \break
\mark \default f1 f1 \break
% Rehearsal marks F through K:
\override Score.RehearsalMark.self-alignment-X = #LEFT % gets closer to
what I want
f1
\mark \default f1
f4 f4 f4 f4
f4 \mark \default f4 f4 f4 \break
f4 f4 \mark \default f4 f4
f4 f4 f4 \mark \default f4 \break
\mark \default f1 f1 \break
% Rehearsal marks L through P:
\override Score.RehearsalMark.self-alignment-X = #-2
f1
\mark \default f1 % “L” (a beginning-of-bar rehearsal mark) looks strange
f4 f4 f4 f4
f4 \mark \default % “M” is pretty close to centered over the note head
f4 f4 f4 \break
f4 f4 \mark \default f4 f4
f4 f4 f4 \mark \default f4 \break
\mark \default f1 f1
}
%%% SNIPPET ENDS
